After a winding road through high school and recruitment, guard Dior Johnson has settled on his college destination. The four-star guard will be attending Pitt.
Johnson committed to the Panthers on Monday, telling ESPN that head coach Jeff Capel’s track record helped convince him to attend the school. “I honestly feel like he’s going to pour into me as a person and player,” Johnson said to ESPN reporter Jonathan Givony.
Johnson re-signed with WME Sports, which posted to its Instagram account that over the past year, Dior had signed the most brand endorsement deals of any male high school basketball player. Johnson played at Southern California Academy (Castaic, Calif.) as a senior in a state where NIL is legal for high schoolers.
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Johnson, who was ranked as a five-star guard for most of his high school career, is ranked the No. 37 player in the class of 2022. He was the highest-ranked player remaining in the class after decommitting from Oregon and being released from his letter of intent last week.
Prior to Oregon, Johnson had been committed to Syracuse.
Johnson released his final three schools of Pitt, Washington State and Mississippi State on Sunday, the day before he committed.
Johnson now joins a Pitt team that saw several players leave in the transfer portal, including starting guards Femi Odukale and Ithiel Horton. This provides an opening for Johnson, who decommitted from Oregon shortly after two guards transferred into the Ducks’ program and starting guard Will Richardson announced he will return to Oregon instead of entering the 2022 NBA draft.
Pitt has gone 21-33 over the last two seasons and hasn’t had a winning season since 2015-16. Johnson, the highest-rated commit to the school since Capel joined, will try to change their fortunes.
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